


Hokanniemi: Year 0

by xhorhas



Category: A Redtail's Dream (Webcomic)
Genre: Gen, SSSS crossover
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-01
Updated: 2016-10-01
Packaged: 2018-08-18 21:17:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8176396
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xhorhas/pseuds/xhorhas
Summary: Hannu thinks it's just ridiculous, everyone talking like it's the end of the world or something.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Elleth](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elleth/gifts).



Junnu Kuitunen agreed that he didn't really have to take any business trips any time soon, not considering the reports starting to come in from the bigger cities, and that pretty much covered it for anyone who might possibly cross into or out of Hokanniemi, ever, if you asked Hannu.

The general worrywart consensus of the village was that it was a good thing they were small, distant, and relatively isolated: this illness had stuck around in the national news for a little too long. Now it seemed like every other person was keeping anxious hawk-eyes on all their neighbors, being much too nosy and looking for the first sign of even the smallest symptom. No one wanted to be the first to fall and then end up giving the rest of the place a bad flu. They wouldn't hear the end of the only-half-joking complaints! 

It was starting to grate on Hannu, who'd picked up the habit of swallowing most of his perfectly ordinary sneezes. Especially during morning rush. The heavy, cloying scents of sugary-sticky cinnamon buns and cardamom braids meant for customers' first coffee-break orders, no doubt _very_ shortly later on, filled the air along with the rattling staticky sound of Jouko's ancient radio attempting to relay a health bulletin.

Hannu whacked it. First to dismay from the clog of breakfast customers sitting at almost every table and chair in the house, then to their reluctant, collective murmur of gratitude. Defensively, he made sure to puff up with offended pride. It was fixed now, and obviously that had been his goal. Obviously. Of course.

The report was mostly just fluff despite theoretically being about this oh-so-terrible ongoing crisis. It was a tone that always made the breakfast crowd hush then start furtively whispering, and made Hannu roll his eyes. Things couldn't be that serious if they were still letting the daytime talk-show hosts make it the center of their joke routine.

But there were always people who relied on these things for some reason. Lauri Kinnunen had been wearing a paper face-mask probably since the first sneeze in Saimaa. Even though things like that weren't even for sale here and Lauri's one, most likely dug out from storage someplace covered in years and years of dust, was giving the old man a constant sniffle anyway. Riikka had a mask, too, although she'd said it was out of a sense of duty more than anything, and so Hannu suspected that Anssi's matching mask was there just because Riikka told him to wear it.

Hannu got back to aimlessly sweeping. There wasn't really any dust or anything around anymore, but if the nosy Kuikka collective saw him at a task they were generally less likely to ask him to go and do something else, and at least he could sweep without bending or stretching much.

He was uninterrupted until the store entrance creaked open, the door protesting at the very concept of more people coming in, although maybe he was projecting, but at least it was just Paju, anyway. He made a vague grunt of greeting without meeting her eyes.

She was at the counter in a second anyway. Tuomi stood there, too, juuuust barely any taller than the counter itself, scowling and skulking around for some reason.

Hannu grabbed a couple plates and dropped onto them a thick slice of nut roll, an open sandwich just with egg and tomato, and a coffee. He knew most people's orders, except for the ones who liked to try different things; they were fickle and were on their own with that. These two usually got the same couple things. If Paju could drag Tuomi down here in the first place, anyway. If she came alone it was _just_ the sandwich and the coffee. See? Hannu was a good employee!

They took seats close enough to chat with him, which, with Paju, meant that they would or, well, that Paju would. Tuomi wasn't much for conversation. Which was fine with Hannu.

"Good morning," she said, an auspicious start. She wasn't angry about something this time? Great!

"Yup."

He got back to pretending to clean and the Kinnunens got back to eating and things stayed like that for a short while, the radio mostly having moved on to regular boring gossip material with only the occasional lapse back into gossip about communicable disease.

Someone came back up from their table and ordered a third coffee. Hannu made it.

It was a _pretty_ good morning.

Then, Paju again: "How are you? Did you sleep well?" 

"No, badly," he admitted.

"What? Worry keeping you up?"

" _No_ , thanks. I'm sleeping and everything, it's just--"

Paju frowned. "Don't tell me you're getting nightmares again?" 

It would be a bad thing to repeat, she was right. Last time one had happened (a long while ago!) Ville hadn't known how to interpret it; he'd managed to howl all night and wake almost the whole block. But: no. "It's regular sleep! It just feels like being awake the whole time. None of that blacking-out and waking up and suddenly it's hours later. I'm awake in a dream but it still is one. I'm not sleep-deprived," he added, wanted to pre-empt any fretting over his health.

"So no regularly dreamlike dream stuff? You've just been dreaming about putzing around the house for a week?"

"Uh... yeah? Mostly? It's off enough to tell I'm asleep but it's annoying, I like the ones where I get to at least fly or _something_.

"Weird." Paju fixed him with a strange, narrow-eyed look for a moment, then shrugged it off. "Well, there's no shortage of coffee here if you ever feel exhausted, but besides that, who knows. Have you told your parents? I'm sure they'd send a care package. Sleeping medication and a teddy bear or two."

"Oh, great, so then everyone can worry about the box being full of horrible death germs," he pointed out with a sigh. "That's exactly what I want to happen."

"Aw! Hannu. Be careful how you talk about it, for a second I almost thought you were showing concern for your neighbors instead of trying to avoid being bothered."

"That's your fault and not mine."

Paju took a large bite of her sandwich. A bit of tomato smudged the corner of her mouth until she wiped it off, adding, "guess so. But I'd guess you're right, too."

"Huh?"

He didn't hear that often.

"I mean... unfortunately you're right that people might start worrying about that kind of thing. The radio isn't helping. We're getting all this real-time breaking news and cautionary advice for other places and people are acting like we need the same level of panic all the way out here," she explained. "It isn't good."

"Glad someone else thinks this is all stupid--"

"That's _not_ what I said. We do need to take the threat seriously, but that means remembering where we are and what it's going to look like if it comes here! Which means waiting for reputable, confirmed information!"

Hannu kept quiet. All the information that was officially confirmed, which he knew because of eavesdropping, was mostly about other places. Iceland had gone into isolation to prevent its small population all falling sick at once; Denmark had also restricted travel access; but Sweden hadn't done anything about it yet; so Finland, admirably stubborn, hadn't either, although lots of Finns seemed to wish it had. There was already a decent contingent of Hokanniemi residents who wanted to erect some sort of barbed-wire fence around the perimeter. 

As if anyone was coming here anyway! He said as much, frowning at the continuing nervous chatter filling up the rest of the seating area; after that, since they'd both said their piece and since Tuomi was bored, conversation dwindled.

By the end of his shift the air outside was crisp and a bit cool. Hannu, heading home for a nap, tightened his light jacket's collar up around his mouth to avoid it. Suddenly remembered all those paper face-masks.

It was silly. Nothing was going to happen here. They just didn't have the mobile population necessary for that kind of physical spread of an illness.

He flopped right into his bed without a care as soon as he reached it, nestling deeply into the warmth of the heavy blankets and the softness of the mattress, and slept like he was wide awake for two hours. There were only a couple indications that he was asleep at all. Ville was pretty much nowhere. And there was some sort of giant glowing half-solid bubble all around his house, but it was kind of cool-looking, and it was nice to have some sort of giveaway, anyway, so he didn't have to worry about it.


End file.
